Dig days: The Pharaoh's dentists in Miami By Zahi Hawass I stayed in Miami for two weeks but could not see the streets of the city. I had to stay in an apartment because I recently had eye surgery. During this period, I had to keep my head down at all times for 24 hours a day and began to reflect on my life. In all the years of my career, I never took time for myself. I began to think about the people that I had forgotten and realised that there were many things in my life that I had also forgotten. While I was staying in the apartment, many people called me from Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak called me twice. Before he called me the second time, I was quite miserable because the first operation on my eye was unsuccessful. I almost had tears in my eyes because of this. The phone rang around noon Miami time, and someone said that President Mubarak would like to speak to Dr Zahi Hawass. I could not believe that the president would call me for a second time. It was the day before I had to go back to the clinic to find out the results of my second operation. The president's call made me happy and significantly improved my health and mood. When I discovered the next day that the operation had been successful, I called the office of the president because he had asked me to tell him how the surgery had gone. Several friends also called me every day in Miami. For example, our great actress Nadia Lutfi called every day to see how I was doing. During my recovery period, I also had a pain in my stomach and even stopped eating. I could not even go to see a doctor during this time because if I raised my head then the operation would not be successful. When I was examined by William Smiddy and found that the hole in my eye had closed, I asked him to recommend a dentist. So he called his dentist's secretary to make an appointment but his dentist was busy for the entire day. About 15 minutes later, the dentist himself called back and asked me to come to see him at noon. He was happy to hear that I was the patient and that is why he changed the appointment of another patient in order to see me. The dentist, Anthony Alonso, was originally from Cuba but was trained in the United States. He is one of the few people with a real passion for his work. He loves to work and has dedicated his life to his job. When you go to his clinic, you can easily see this passion. He truly is a unique man! After examining my teeth, he decided that I needed root canal work on one tooth and asked another dentist, Osvaldo, to do that for me. They worked together like a team or an orchestra performing with artistic competence and professionalism. I thought that I was not in the company of two dentists but rather with two artists who love their work and give it all their passion. I have never seen such a performance in a dentist's clinic. When I went to see the dentist, he said that his children always watched me on TV and followed my work. Alonso was most interested in the Cemetery of the Dentists that I discovered at Saqqara. We discussed this cemetery, where three dentists are buried together in the shadow of the Step Pyramid, the oldest pyramid in Egypt. We talked about the names of the dentists, and how each one had his name inscribed on the false door with their titles, such as the "dentist of the king". He also liked the curse inscription that was found at the entrance to the tomb of the dentist Iy- mery warning that if anyone disturbed this tomb they would be eaten by a crocodile and a snake. Alonso had a photo taken with me and decided to frame it with a newspaper article discussing the Pharaoh's dentists. He was going to put these on his wall at the clinic. The smile on his face made me very happy. I asked him to bring his children to visit me in Egypt. He was also very interested to meet my cousin, Mohamed El-Said, who is a famous dentist in Cairo. I told him that Mohamed had a similar passion for his work. My cousin has a beautiful clinic and when one enters, you can feel the magic and passion. This is why when I go to see him there are many foreigners in his clinic -- having a passion for your work truly makes a difference!
